HTC G2 Owners to Get T-Mobile OTA Update for WiFi Calling, Tethering

If you’re the proud owner of T-Mobile USA’s first official HSPA+ smartphone, you’ll be happy to know that the carrier of your choice will be pushing a firmware update to the T-Mobile HTC G2 over the air starting today. Don’t fret, however, if you haven’t seen the update hit your G2 devices yet as Android OTA updates are rolled out in batches, and TmoNews is reporting that the update will be timed from November 3rd through November 8th. After the update, users within a WiFi hotspot area can switch to WiFi to either save on minutes or improve their reception. The option for WiFi calling does not require an investment in a femtocell unit, making it more attractive than offerings from other carriers.

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Also included with the update is tethering, a feature that is natively supported on the Android 2.2 Froyo build that the T-Mobile G2 had shipped with but was not enabled due to the fact that the carrier didn’t have any pricing plans available for the feature. However, since then, the carrier had gone on to announce WiFi tethering plans for an added cost of $15 per month. The update should allow users to tether with a qualifying data plan and the tethering package added on top of normal data rates. Tethering will allow users to share their Android smartphone’s mobile broadband connection over a WiFi signal. Laptops or other devices can connect over WiFi to utilize mobile broadband that way, eliminating the need for a dedicated USB modem or a MiFi hotspot device.